Advanced Counselling Theories: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Michael Hoober is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), who owns a private practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Before he was self-employed, he counseled sex offenders at a local agency. For his undergraduate, he achieved a bachelor’s degree in psychology. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he gained a masters of art in psychology and a masters in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. When asked about his theoretical orientation, he disclosed he has an attachment focused orientation. According to Brodrick and Blewitt (2015) they state how the attachment perspective from a professional counselor is a therapeutic bond that is aimed to modify the individual’s cognition, behaviors, and emotions. Once the rapport

My personal odyssey into the realm of counselling has been quite the reluctant adventure. The perilous journey from childhood to adulthood was difficult to navigate given the cognitive map that had been handed down. My father was a functioning alcoholic who was both physically and verbally abusive. My mother was a martyr prone to mood swings and suicidal thoughts. I was the only girl and the eldest of 3. Any bid for attention was usurped by my middle brother who had to be the centre of attention, no matter what the cost. Knowledge became my currency. At the age of 4 my favourite word was obstreperous and I would happily inform people in supermarkets that ‘my brother was very obstreperous and he had my mammy’s heart broken.’ In turn I would get a smile and if lucky a lollipop. My love of learning gave me brief respite until the age 12 when a teacher humiliated me in front of a class for only getting 17 out of 20 in a spelling test. This cemented feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. It was also the point that I switched off emotionally to survive the barrage of

Since the historically deadly shooting that occurred at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, it has been fifty-one years. There was also another attack on a southern black church that was allegedly bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on September 15th, 1963. In all the ramshackle, four young girls were unfortunately caught in between the incidences and they lost their lives. Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins were 14 years old when the bombing took place; Denise McNair was 11 years old (Kadzin, 2008).

This paper focuses on person-centered therapy. Person-centered therapy is an approach to help individuals develop a sense of self. This therapy is different from others as the client is responsible for improving his own life, not the therapist. However, it is important for the therapist to create a conducive environment for the client so that the client feels safe and secure and will be at ease to share problems or issues during therapy sessions. Three core conditions that will aid the therapist in doing so is being congruent, having unconditional positive regard and being emphatic. This paper explores the effectiveness of person-centered therapy in creating therapeutic alliance. It also explores the necessary conditions for constructive personality change to occur, exist and continue over a period of time as well as the personal characteristics that are most important for a person-centered therapist to be genuine and lastly the personal characteristics of the writer, which might assist or hinder ability to work with clients effectively.

The criminological theory that I think is the best is the social leaning theory. The social learning is a social learning behavior which is affected by your peers. The people around you can really affect the way you think and act. Just hanging and socializing with people you can adapt bad habits. Learning also occurs through the observation of reactions and punishments. Social learning theory combines cognitive learning theory and behavioral learning theory. Social learning theory contributes many other theories. Most crimes come from people who was influenced by their peers who also do crimes. Crimes are illegal acts against the law. The social learning theory criticisms are individuals and especially children. The assumptions of the social

Therapeutic alliance is building a relationship between client and the therapist. This relationship is important in order for the client to have some success with treatment. Assisting, client’s in identifying personal goals, strengths, and preferences for change in behaviors. Needs and abilities and engaging the client in a discussion to problem solve and steps to take to achieve goals. Therapist, provides instruction in helping client to set reasonable objectives to meet goals and developing trust in order for the therapeutic alliance can be established.

The therapist would begin by engaging Mei Lin in free association, a basic tool in PP, to start exploring Mei Lin’s unconscious processes. With this technique, therapist would be able to encourage Mei Lin to share any thoughts and feelings freely without being constrained, regardless how painful, silly, illogical or irrelevant it may sounds. Moreover, the free association gives the client space and opportunity to unfolding unconscious motivations, desires, fantasies, fears and hidden feelings that may have been blocked and are related to the issue (Corey, 2013). Mei Lin would have a chance to share what comes to her mind and allowed to talk about her past painful experiences, therefore giving the opportunity for transference

Interpersonal interaction within the group is vital to effect change and the therapist’s role is to facilitate that experience in the here and now. By members feeling a sense of belonging, hope, safety and awareness they are not alone in their issues, provides a solid foundation. Interpersonal interaction within the group enables members to release previously repressed emotions promoting healing, and the sharing of information can help educate and empower a sense of value by helping others. Members can learn coping strategies from others and interpersonal teaching can help them to develop supportive interpersonal relationships and interpersonal skills, such as empathy and tolerance. The discussion of existential factors within the group helps promote awareness and acceptance and understanding of how to live with them. (Yalom & Leszcz,

For an effective therapeutic alliance, it is vital to employ effective therapeutic skills which are verbal and non-verbal methods to communicate

Counselling psychology The humanistic approach’s primary application has been to therapeutic treatments. Rogers believed that with counselling people would be able to solve their own problems in constructive ways, and move towards becoming a more fully functioning person. He called his therapeutic approach client-centred therapy because of the focus on the

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is reflected as the forefathers of psychology and founder of psychoanalysis. Based on Freud’s theories, psychoanalytic therapy is a type of treatment that tends to observe at the background from early childhood to perceive if these situations have affected the individual’s life, or to current issues. (Counselling Directory, 2014)

From the beginning, the therapist had to deal with own doubts and anxiety. The therapist had heard a lot about the psychodynamic psychotherapy but this was the first time he conduct the sessions by himself. Unlike pharmacotherapy, there is no standard clinical practice guideline or recommendation for the therapist to refer to or follow. The therapist was worried that he was unable to conduct the therapy effectively and his patient would not benefit from the therapy. Fortunately, the therapist received a lot of encouragement and support from his supervisor, which enabled him to complete the therapy sessions with his patient.

Family counseling draws on systems thinking in its perspective of the family as an emotional unit. When systems thinking, which assesses the portions of a system in relation to the whole, is related to families, it proposes behavior is both informed by and indivisible from the performance of a client’s family of origin. Families facing a struggle within the family unit and looking for professional help to address the problems may find family counseling a helpful approach. Within family counseling there are four family system approaches: systems, structural, strategic, and communications.

Many theories of group counselling have borrowed ideas and approaches from psychoanalysis. The primary aim of the analytic process is reorganize the client’s personality and character structure. This aim is attained by making unconscious conflicts conscious and analysing them. Wolf (1963, 1975) developed group applications of fundamental psychoanalytic approaches such as working with transference, free association, dreams, and the historical factors of existing behaviour. The group leader relates understanding to the family-like relations that emerge among the members and between the members and the therapist. Because of the family-like atmosphere, the group provides opportunities to evoke associations to both family-of-origin and present life

A set of assumptions or rules on which the practice of an activity is based on is called a theory. It is also a fundamental or a basis used to account for a situation. There are several theories used in counseling practice. However, in this essay, I will only deal with the three prominent theories, which are, Psychoanalytic theory, Behavioral theory and Humanistic theory.